Palestine Cinema Days: Three documentaries on Palestinian life and memory

Admission is free. Due to limited capacity, please reserve your seat by booking a €0 ticket. The screening will be followed by a discussion with invited guests and the audience.

On 2 November, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration (1917), RKZbios and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Groningen will once again come together for Palestine Cinema Days Around the World. This year’s programme brings together three documentaries spanning more than fifty years, exploring how cinema bears witness to Palestinian lives and preserves memories in the face of displacement and erasure.

They Do Not Exist (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1974, 25 min.) Filmed under extraordinary conditions, Abu Ali documents life in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the effects of Israeli bombardments, and guerrillas in training camps.

The Dream (Mohammad Malas, 1987, 45 min.) Filmmaker Malas asks Palestinian refugees in Lebanon during the civil war about their dreams. Their accounts offer an intimate perspective on experiences of exile and the longing for Palestine.

Gazawyat: Fidaa (Khaled Tuaima, 2026, 11 min.) Fidaa Abu Maryam uses storytelling as psychological first aid for women in Gaza. By gathering their testimonies, she creates a living archive of feminist memory, supporting women in reclaiming a sense of self amid devastation.

Organized by Filmlab Palestine. Palestine Cinema Days Around the World brings Palestinian films to audiences across the globe. Now in its fourth edition, the initiative creates spaces for collective viewing and discussion in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide and colonial violence. Our gathering in Groningen joins this international effort to keep Palestinian stories visible and resist their erasure.